1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a terminal box for a solar battery module and a rectifying-device unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
A solar energy generation system is constructed to supply direct-current electricity from a solar battery panel on the roof of a building to electric equipment via an inverter or the like. The solar battery panel has a plurality of solar battery modules, and electrodes of the solar battery modules are connected in series or in parallel via terminal boxes.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 3498945 discloses a terminal box that has terminal plates arranged adjacent to each other in a box. Ends of the terminal plates at one side are connectable with positive and negative electrodes drawn out from the underside of the solar battery module. The other ends of the terminal plates are connectable with cables for external connection. Bypass diodes span between adjacent terminal plates for shorting an inverse current at the time of an inverse load from one cable for external connection to the other. Each bypass diode has a chip-shaped diode functioning portion and two conductor pieces connect with the diode functioning portion while holding the diode functioning portion therebetween. The conductor pieces extend in opposite directions from the contacts with the diode functioning portion. Extending ends of the conductor pieces are connected with the corresponding terminal plates, for example, by soldering.
Heat generated by the above-described diode functioning portion cannot be discharged efficiently. Some known diodes packaged by resin sealing have heat-discharging plates for discharging the heat. However, the heat discharging plates are not very large, and it has been difficult to ensure sufficient heat discharging characteristics only by the heat-discharging plates.
The present invention was developed in view of the above problem and an object thereof is to ensure good heat discharging characteristics.